Friday, January 16th I woke up and was feeling a little off. I texted Jonathan to see when they were heading out to head down this way and he said in about an hour. So, I went on my way getting the kiddos off to school and then I had to use the bathroom. Immediately afterward I was feeling crampy and started getting some contractions about every 15 min or so. I sat down on the couch to rest and see if they went away. Eventually, I texted Jonathan and told them not to hit the road just yet in case this was labor starting up and they needed to hop on a plane instead. After a good few hours, things cooled down and so they hit road.
That was the first of my prodromal labor. I continued to get it, usually in the middle of the night or early morning, for several days after that. But once Jonathan and his mom arrived Saturday evening, all was good because if baby boy decided to make his appearance, we were now ready.
A week later, we found our self 39.6 days and still pregnant at my appointment with Dr. Hinds. I decided that with the prodromal labor all week wearing on me I'd have him check me again. I was 3cm but stretchy to almost 5cm and 80% effaced. So I went ahead and had him sweep my membranes.
Friday, January 23 at exactly 40 weeks, I woke up to waves around 1:30am and went to the bathroom. They seemed to be coming pretty frequently, even though they weren't strong so I decided to start timing them. At first, they were coming pretty consistently every 3 minutes and felt different from the prodromal waves I'd been having...a little lower too. I texted my doula, Kate, and after some timing, her, Sorrell, and I decided that it seemed like this was the real thing so we woke Jonathan and his mom. We all packed our bags up and planned to head to the hospital and meet Kate there. Sorrell stayed home with our kiddos.
By the time we got to the hospital, they we're ranging from 3-7 minutes and I was still 3cm 80% so we hung out in triage for a couple of hours. At the next check I was about 4cm so my doctor had me stay for one more hour before deciding whether to admit me. After that hour, I was 5cm so he went a head and admitted me.
We hung out and labored easily and at the next check around noon, I was at 6cm but my waves were still frequent, yet sporadic...not in a true set pattern. Since I was already admitted and had the heplock in and all that jazz, Dr. Hinds said that we could just stay there but I wasn't really in active labor yet, just had ACD or advanced cervical dilation. He said that he was going to go home and unless something changed, he'd come back around 8pm-ish to see where we were.
So, more hanging out and laboring and resting as I could. The waves were a little more intense but still very manageable. Around 6pm the nurse asked to check me. I was still sitting at 6cm. :( Dr. Hinds came back in around 7pm and asked to check me himself and mentioned the possibility of breaking my water to help move things along. When he checked, I was at 7.5cm. He felt that breaking my water would make it go quickly but I was nervous about it getting too intense for me so I asked for a minute to discuss with my doulas and friends and sort of work through my emotions. After discussing it with them, I decided that I was leaning more toward doing it because even if it got intense, we only had a couple of centimeters to go and we were worried that if I kept waiting for it to happen on it's own, I'd get too tired and worn out. Things were gonna become intense either way at the end and if I waited and continued laboring before that happened, I might not have the energy to push effectively. This way, even if it was intense, we could work through it and I still had a decent amount of energy left to handle whatever came my way and wouldn't be laboring well into the night.
I had Dr. Hinds come back in and he did an AROM around 7:15pm. Then as I suspected, shit got real. LOL My waves quickly got really intense and it took everything I had to stay on top of them for the next 30 to 45 minutes or so. I got up to use the restroom and sat on the toilet through a couple of waves and while in there, had some crying and "this hurts, I don't want to do it any more" moments with Kate as she talked me through it and kept informing me that I WAS doing it and we were almost done. When we came back out, the nurse asked to check me again before I got back into bed because I mentioned I was feeling it in my hips. Still 7.5cm but she said she could tell baby's head was laying a little sideways so we put me on my left side to help him turn to come down. I had 3 horribly intense waves in that position and after the third one started crying, told Kate I was done, I couldn't do this anymore and wanted an epidural and gave my code word to prove I was serious. The nurse said, "You understand that means I have to start IV fluids?" I said yes just as another wave started. She turned to do whatever she had to for the epidural to happen and then in the middle of the wave, I suddenly felt the most intense pressure ever and so I yelled out, "I'M PUSHING!"
The nurse said, "Let me check you" and didn't even have to because when I started to open my legs, they could see him crowning! As I was yelling and saying some choice words and my body was pushing on it's own, the nurse was calling frantically for Dr. Hinds and telling me not to push. She said, 'You have to get on your back now! Don't push!!" I said that I couldn't move so my doulas all rolled me on my back and I was panting and trying as hard as I could not to push but my body was doing it anyway. I just kept saying "He's coming!" and that I was pushing (probably still with choice words randomly thrown in) and Dr. Hinds ran in the room just in time to have the gown thrown over him and catch! From the nurse checking me after the bathroom to baby being born was literally about 10-15 minutes, if that! Apparently after he was born and over at the warmer I looked at Dr. Hinds and said, "What the fuck just happened?!" Everyone just laughed. I'm pretty sure I was in shock for a good 20-30 minutes afterward as my brain tried to process what had just happened to my body! Hahaha.
But, I got my unmedicated VBAC and baby Sawyer Easton was born at 8:32pm on his due date weighing 8 pounds, 10 ounces, 21.25 inches long and perfect. My biggest (and fastest!!) baby yet with no tears! And I have to go on record saying that it was pretty fucking amazing!!! ;)